New Security Updates for Adobe and Foxit PDF Readers
Adobe Systems has released an update to plug a dangerous security hole that hackers first began exploiting in January. The update, available here, is for Adobe Reader and Acrobat programs on both Windows and Mac systems.
Adobe has said it expects updates for Adobe Reader 7 and 8, and Acrobat 7 and 8, to be available.
If you’ve chosen to read PDF documents using the popular alternative to Adobe — Foxit Reader — you also need to update. Foxit has released an update that fixes at least three serious vulnerabilities in its Reader products. That update, which brings Foxit Reader to version 3.0, is available from here.
Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with very small size, breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set. Its core function is compatible with PDF Standard 1.7. Previously, you’ve had to download a huge PDF reader from another software company, such as Adobe, go through a lengthy installation process and wait for an annoying splash window to disappear just to open a PDF document.
Many people find Adobe Reader is a real pain to use. It’s monstrously large. Very slow to load. And includes many features most users will hardly ever need. On the other hand, Foxit PDF Reader 3.0 kills the additional, often unneeded features and throws in some useful additions, such as multimedia support plus content-sharing options. Yet still allowing you to quickly access your PDFs.
The interface is similar to Adobe’s, so you won’t have to change your PDF reading habits.
In a recent test, the text readability was similar. The small program starts surprisingly fast compared with Adobe Reader. You might need to make a few adjustments to get it to work with your Internet browser. But you can find help on Foxit’s support forums.
It’s a good feature that it opens PDFs from the Internet in their own Foxit window – instead of taking resources from within the open browser you are using.
Foxit’s biggest flaw used to be hogging memory. However this has now been corrected. Recent updates include fixing the hyperlink problems, multimedia support, printing highlighted-only sections, and tabbed PDF browsing.
Now, you can read multiple PDFs simultaneously and with ease. Overall, unless you’re tied to Adobe we strongly recommend Foxit, this freeware PDF competitor to Adobe’s older and more bloated PDF reader.
| Related Posts Around the Web |
| The Success of Adobe Acrobat Reader Adobe Acrobat reader is a freeware developed by Adobe Systems. It is designed for the purpose of opening and viewing Portable Document... |
